Toddler fine motor skills popsicle activities

Hi and thanks for visiting my blog.

Today, I would like to share with you an activity for >2yo toddlers. You may have seen my previous post on cartoons popsicles.
So naturally, having purchased a big bag of wooden sticks, I'm looking for more amazing activities to do with my son that are using those.
For this activity however, I purchased the Jumbo sized wooden sticks because I thought that it would be easier to handle for my son.

Note: that the previous article could also be based on these Jumbos.

Toddler fine motor skills popsicle activity


I'm happy to report this is also made from only 2 things: wooden sticks and velcros!!

If you purchased the Jumbos sticks from the previous post, then you only need to buy one thing, the velcros - if you don't already have at home!
That's how good this activity is!
If you purchased the thin wooden sticks, then I would recommend buying the Jumbos ones simply because the smallest velcros I could find are the perfect size for the Jumbos and would be too big for the Thins (I tried cutting the velcros in 2 and sticking them to the Thins but the velcro grip is a bit flimsy and does not work as well).

Material



What your toddler can learn

1. He can learn the colours of the wooden sticks
2. He can explore the two different textures of a velcro
3. He can observe and work out how to use a velcro
4. He can learn to build shapes
5. He can learn to name shapes
6. He can associate shapes to single-coloured wooden sticks
7. He can learn to be quiet at a restaurant while playing with this unconventional and educational home-made toy ;)

Method

The only thing there's to do is stick the velcro on the sticks! :)

Now, because you can do pretty much anything, you can actually stick the velcros anywhere you want.
I did mine the simplest way you can:

• A soft velcro on one end and a grip velcro on the opposite end but same facing side. 
• A soft velcro on one end and a grip velcro on the opposite en but reverse side.

My original plan was to stick them all on one facing side but it turned out I couldn't close the triangle, ah ah!

But if you have older kids, you can try sticking velcro on the half-length to make more complicated shapes.

I tested these yesterday afternoon when we went to a pizzeria:

I took a box of his favourite toys, including the godforsaken Woody and BuzzLight, and our Velcroed Popsicles!
To my delight, he played with them more than any other toy that I had brought for him. Result!

I showed him how the velcro textures were different on each side of the sticks and how they stick together, and how - of course - they make weird noise when you try to separate them.

He was mesmerized by the magic glue, but then his 2 and 1/2 yo spirit took over and the shapes became weapons to dismantle while making big gestures and funny faces.

I loved watching him play with this oh-so-simple toy and it gave me the confidence that I can find, and easily make, educational and fun activities for him.

What do you do to keep your LO busy when out at a restaurant?

Triple Chocolate Peekaboo Cake with a Vanilla Chilli Pink Surprise!

Wow I hadn't baked for years and years and then BANG! 

A month after starting my new job, a baking competition was announced, sort of a friendly Great British Bake Off! 

Perfect opportunity to test that new oven, shape some sugar paste, try that chocolate ganache recipe AND most importantly try a PEEKABOO cake!!!! 

Oooh but hang on, shouldn't I make a decision on what technique to use first before getting too excited? 

Nooooo, let's do them all! 

On one cake!

So I set my heart on attempting a chocolate peekaboo cake, the inside cake being a vanilla, chilli, and pink cake in the shape of my company's name. 

It would then be covered in chocolate ganache and I would use some sugar paste for the decorations! Quite a grand project for someone who hasn't baked for a while, and never decorated anything - apart from my friend's cake (see post below).

Because we have this new thing about Vine, I made a Vine video! If you'd like to follow me, I'm HERE

 

Here are a couple of pictures here below:

First Cake, pink, vanilla with a hint of Chilli was baked, cut and frozen before being re-placed in the baking tray

I could have added more chilli, it was almost imperceptible within the chocolate cake

Peekaboo cake before the ganache. I cut the top because it had risen too high. Notice my installation: cake on top of its own baking tray, on top of a tupperware to catch all the extra ganache

After pouring the ganache, setting in the fridge

Decorations time. Strawberry-flavoured sugar paste, rolled out on some icing sugar, shaped and sprayed with a golden sparkle

My company's motto

I decided last minute to add some sugary flowers. The chocolate ones are ganache and the white ones are butter mixed with icing sugar. All were sprayed with the golden spray

Admittedly I'm a bit disappointed with how it turned out, the PAN letters are not very visible, I should have used a ARIAL police instead of keeping as it is on top of the cake. But for a first attempt, not too bad!! I'm still victim of my pet fear though which is to underbake, so naturally it was overbaked and a bit dense

I will finish this post asap with the recipes.... To be Continued...

Toddler calendar

My BFF's daughter is of the same age as my son. They are so cute together! They really enjoy each other's company which is quite amazing since my son is usually very competitive with all his friends. However, her daddy has gone to Afghanistan for 4 months. This little toddler is particularly smart for her age so her parents were very open with her and prepared her for 3 weeks ahead of the big goodbye. When it was time for the last hugs, she bravely waved daddy goodbye.
For her 2nd birthday, her mum - my BFF - asked me to create a calendar for her to understand when her daddy would be back.
My BFF has always had a lot of confidence into my creative and crafty skills when I personally wouldn't have considered myself out of the ordinary. It's partly thanks to her that I took the decision to step into the creative world of healthcare advertising!
Here is what I came up with: an interactive and educational toddler calendar whereby each day's task is to decorate daddy's pix with today's sticker and each day's learning lesson is to practice 1 colour and 1 shape. The top line is L M M J V S D which are the initials of the weekdays' names in French. Each line is therefore 1 week. There are no numbers so Mum can start anytime 12 weeks ahead of as yet unplanned daddy's return. Within the calendar is a hidden message to stick on the photo. The overall aim is for her to visualize how time works and understand how long she has to wait until daddy's return

A 'French' interactive and educational toddler calendar

Daddy didn't go by himself, his daughter gave him her Maya soft toy

To do this, I used all crafty material from my Tesco: A pack of shiny coloured soft cardboards, stickers, letters, felt decoration, craft glue.

I'm quite happy with my work although you can never be 100% satisfied, a project remains a project forever!!. I could have gone simpler with a simple calendar and golden stars stickers but there was nothing exciting in that project and I was thinking that just sticking a sticker might not be enough activity for a toddler and she might want to stick them all in one go hoping it would bring daddy home sooner. With this calendar, there are 3 actions: unstick a sticker from the right place, decorate daddy with it and learn 1 colour and 1 shape.
I think it will also be useful for Mummy, I'm pretty sure she knows colours and shapes but it will help her visualising when her hubby is coming home!!

Update October 2014 - And here is job done, daddy is now back with baby!:)

Sugar shapes

For my BFF's daughter's 2nd birthday, my BFF wanted to create a Maya the bee sugar shape to place on top of the birthday cake.

In My Room

Well who would have thought that those suggested posts from FB would be useful one day?
This morning it was about a frame of Beach boys amazing song God Only Knows!
A bit too pricey for me so I thought, well I could easily do one myself? I had my bedroom in mind so I chose another song from the Beach Boys called In My Room!! Here is the result! I just have to send it to a printer to have it nicely printed... Very happy with my work!! :)

Personalised nursery deco

Yes I admit it, I am a Pinterest addict! But you can find such amazing things, you can get inspired!!
So one of the things that really appealed to me is this pin:

So I've made my own: